If you want to get ahead, then focus on your customers. Customer experience is the differentiator in today’s increasingly competitive marketplace. And a well-executed Customer Journey Map is the foundation for customer experience success.

This series of four articles explores how to create a successful Customer Journey Mapping project. Helping you to change internal perspectives, build customer loyalty, increase sales and boost your brand.

One of the most amazing tangible benefits of Customer Journey Mapping is that it gives you the ability to build internal alignment across your organisation. Even the most complex organisations can use Customer Journey Maps to align different departments to the benefits of customer-centric strategies.

Let’s look at how it works.

What are we aligning on?

Customer Journey Mapping is usually carried out when an organisation wants to change their way of thinking – from a business-centred to CUSTOMER-centred model. This can be difficult as it challenges the current state and the way people think.

How can Customer Journey Mapping help?
Customer Journey Mapping is a technique to get everyone to change their perspective to focus on the customer instead of the business.

Why is this important?

1. Everyone has a shared single understanding of the customer experience and the changes that are needed across the organisation
2. Everyone can see the business benefits from making these changes
3. This helps secure buy in and encourage people to work towards the same vision

Why bother getting internal alignment?

Internal alignment might feel like the holy grail for many companies, especially those with a complex structure and multiple departments working in silo. But buy in from your ENTIRE organisation is critical to the success of customer-centred services.

How can Customer Journey Mapping help?
Use your Customer Journey Map to get every stakeholder and department involved from the offset.

Why is this important?

1. If you miss out on engaging key stakeholders from the very beginning, you risk them torpedoing your whole initiative later on
2. Most large complex organisations are extremely siloed, and people in different departments may never meet, work together or even know each other. But great customer experiences are only possible if there is true cross-departmental collaboration
3. Investing in internal alignment up front paves the way for a smoother delivery and implementation

Who do you need to get alignment from?
Key departments our clients typically engage with on a Customer Journey Mapping project come from: Strategy, Marketing, Sales, Contact centre, Brand, Logistics, Product, Insight, IT, Comms, International, Ecommerce, Mobile, Data.

For your organisation, you need to choose the right key players to invite. You want the most influential stakeholders on your side, so it’s critical to engage them as early as possible.

How Newt can help
Getting buy in can be challenging, not to mention time consuming. That’s where we come in. We are experts in creating Customer Journey Maps that exceed expectations, here are just a few of the ways we can help:

1. Engaging stakeholders

We meet with your executive level stakeholders separately, giving them individual time and space to voice their expectations and desired outcomes. This gives them ownership and enables them to put their stamp on the outputs.

2. Running interactive workshops

Our interactive, engaging workshops help put everyone on a level field:

• We recognise that a front line member of staff’s perspective is just as important as a senior manager’s opinion
• Putting the customer at the centre takes the focus off seniority of stakeholders and encourages open contribution from everyone

3. Encouraging those reluctant to change

We are experienced in dealing with and addressing those people who are resistant to change or who have done similar initiatives in the past that have come to nothing

4. Facilitating conflicting needs

We understand different departments have different needs and are well versed in dealing with conflicting requirements. Our job is to get everyone to a place where they can agree on what’s important for the customer. We do this through tried and tested facilitation techniques, helping to raise and clarify concerns in a non-confrontational way. This allows issues to be discussed and dealt with instead of being brushed under the carpet.

Get in touch

Drop us a line at info@newtidea.com or call Amanda on 07786 657 504

Read all the articles in this Customer Journey Mapping series

Part 2 – Take action with your customer-centred strategy
Part 3 – Three steps to smart innovation
Part 4 – Top tips for tapping into successful opportunities

Sources

Deloitte Greece. (2016). Rethinking the customer experience to win. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/gr/en/pages/consumer-business/articles/consumer_review_deloitte_greece.html

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